Welcome to the AC Tropical Fish aquarium forum. Our aquarium forum is the place to discuss any aquarium related issue in a friendly environment. Our aquarium forum welcomes aquarists of all levels from beginners to experts. Please ask a question in the how to section of our forum or read the FAQ section if you have any questions. register to and become a part of our friendly aquarium forum community today.

But seriously, If you are going to be using them on a tank we would need some details about the size of it & the stock you intend to keep before we could have an opinion on their suitability to the task.

I have an Emperor 400 on a 29G tank and it does ok and I used to run another one in combination with a canister as filtration on a 55G, I modded both of them so they no longer use the cartridges. I have not used any of the others.

Gas mileage isn't everythingOIIIIIIIOLack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.Why pretend there are no stupid questions? Actually, There are many stupid questions: "Should I drink this bleach?" Is just one example.
Having said that, Just because it's a stupid question doesn't mean that it shouldn't be asked. It's better to know.A warm beer is better than a cold beer. Because nothing is better than a cold beer, and a warm beer is better than nothing.

Haha sorry I meant to include it but I got carried away.. 80 gallon tank, probably 2 plants (java fern and amazon sword) and approx 6 fish (cichlids and angels). Maybe a turtle, but I'm still debating if its worth having the turtle potentially ruin everything haha

Haha sorry I meant to include it but I got carried away.. 80 gallon tank, probably 2 plants (java fern and amazon sword) and approx 6 fish (cichlids and angels). Maybe a turtle, but I'm still debating if its worth having the turtle potentially ruin everything haha

I wouldn't put a turtle with fish for two reasons.
A. Fish make for expensive turtle food and turtles eat fish... Eventually.
B. Turtles are filthy filthy when it comes to destroying water quality and this will be very very hard on your fish.. This will only turn them into easier to catch turtle food.

Your first decision is; Is this a turtle tank or a fish tank. Either way you will need more than a single one of these particular filters IMO.

Filters are generally good for approximately half the tank size the manufacturers rate them for btw. Make of that what you will but that is real world environment exp VS packaging hype [& laboratory conditions] for you.

When you say 'cichlids' to go with angels [Angels are cichlids too btw ] I am assuming you mean sizeable new world cichlids since you didn't mention dwarfs and Africans do not have compatible water parameters to go with angels.

The generic canisters above are of indeterminate quality IMO so personally I would not be considering them but that risk is yours to take.

Hopefully someone will chime in with experience with those other brands.

Just as an observation I will mention that if the budget is an issue, Filtration is NOT the place to be attempting to save some bucks [Unless you are into DIY].

Whichever way you go, Good luck

Gas mileage isn't everythingOIIIIIIIOLack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.Why pretend there are no stupid questions? Actually, There are many stupid questions: "Should I drink this bleach?" Is just one example.
Having said that, Just because it's a stupid question doesn't mean that it shouldn't be asked. It's better to know.A warm beer is better than a cold beer. Because nothing is better than a cold beer, and a warm beer is better than nothing.

I use an Aquatop 500 UV; good price but will it last? So far, been running about six months fine. A turtle can not be put in with tropical fish. Turtles need to get out of the water and are better for shallow containers with places for them to get out of the water. Also, canister filters work best with larger tanks like the 80 gal.

I have two canisters (Cascade 1000's) that are sitting so I don't care if the Aquatop failes; one thing, the Aquatop 500 holds a lot of bio-material.

Last edited by Cermet; 02-09-2013 at 10:07 PM.

Knowledge is fun(damental)

A 75 gal with eight Discus, fake plants, and a lot of wood also with sand substrate. Clean up crew is down to just two Sterba's Corys. Filters: continuous new water flow; canister w/UV, in-tank algae scrubber!! Finally, junked the nitrate removal unit from hell.

I agree with the filtration aspect, I wanna overdue the filtration rather than undercut it (especially if I do decide to make it a turtle tank). As of now, it is a fish tank with live plants. I know angels are cichlids (I knew that was coming :/) but I haven't done enough research on the specific type of cichlids yet to make a decision.

As far as the filtration, would the aquatop (#2) suffice? I have heard the 2x tank size advice and that ones rated up to 175, along with #4 (150 gal). Do you have any recommendations outside of those options?

The only way I see a turtle ever working in the tank is under a few conditions:
1. The fish go in first and establish their territory
2. Plenty of hiding spots for the fish to utilize
3. More than adequate filtration
4. A basking platform or dock and basking lamp (ex: http://www.amazon.com/Decorative-Tur...ds=turtle+dock)
5. The turtle species is small and stays extremely small
So translation... probably gonna stay a fish tank :D

How expensive has the maintenance been for the Aquatop? I know you can rinse the biomaterial instead of replacing it, but have you had it long enough to see how it compares to other canisters in that aspect?

Personally, I wouldn't buy any of those filters. I bought two Eheims second hand and have absolutely no regrets about going with a reputable brand name even if they were used. Parts can be a little pricey, but I haven't had anything really wrong with them and I bought them for the same price as the Aquatop.

If I had to pick, I'd probably get the Aquatop, but theres no information on the size of the filter (inner volume). Without that, its hard to say if 525gph (realistically half of that) is plenty of filtration for your tank as both flow rate and the volume of the filtration media need to be taken into account. 1000gph of flow over an 1/10th of a gallon of media is far worse than 200gph flow over 2 gallons of media. Really depends IMO.

Do you guys think theres a big difference between a name brand like aquatop and something thats similar but a knock-off? Theoretically, isn't most of the filtering done by the bio-material so theyd be the same as long as the pump works as stated and doesnt break?

The issue isn't the operation of the filter itself... its really how accurate the information provided is as well as the support available if anything goes wrong. You can go out and find parts for bigger brands very easily and yes, they are expensive but they are cheaper than completely replacing a knock-off brand filter completely. I always like to think that you pay a premium for quality because it is in fact cheaper in the long run.